Let Me Tell You Everything: Memoirs of a Lovesick Intellectual - Hardcover

Bottner, Barbara

9780060205966: Let Me Tell You Everything: Memoirs of a Lovesick Intellectual

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060205962 ISBN 13: 9780060205966

Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books, 1989

An articulate, intelligent teenager with strong ideas about feminism faces a conflict when she falls in love with her social studies teacher

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From School Library Journal:

Grade 9 Up-- Brogan gets up early in the morning to read rather than to fix her hair. Individuality is her goal rather than her dread. She worries about global problems, possesses a "Large Question Mania," and admits to loving her mind. In short, not your typical adolescent female. Yet typical adolescent concerns invade her life. She is caught in the grip of a crush on her new social studies teacher, Mr. Price, a serious, intense type who resembles William Hurt. Anxious to impress him, she launches into an intensive investigation of "The Problem" of female subjugation, and finds herself struggling between the urge to redefine herself as a woman and her concern with his opinion of her. Although the feminist message is sometimes too obtrusive, Bottner provides a valuable awareness tool for intelligent female readers. Brogan's alcoholic father and depressed, underachieving mother are heading for divorce, which pitches Brogan into emotional turmoil. Her confused father's feelings drive her to an abortive attempt to seduce Price, after which the loose ends of her life are too suddenly tied together. The characterization of Price is hazy; Brogan's limited first-person perspective creates unanswered questions about his lifestyle and his naivete in teacher-student interactions. However, while not as well done a portrayal of student infatuation for a teacher as Lynn Hall's The Giver (Scribners, 1985), Brogan's narrative of intellectual and amorous angst is humorous. --Merilyn S. Burrington, Vergennes Union High School, Vt.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Readers may start out feeling troubled about the conflicting ways in which Brogan presents herself. She believes herself a feminist, and an intellectual. Then, "On the map between real bow-wow ugly and drop-dead-your-life-is-made gorgeous, I'm just middle of the road 'cute.' Let me just say: I'm grateful." Her next utterance is a crack about another girl, with "no chin" and "short legs." So even though she is a serious girl, with worldly aims and aspirations, she's hard to take seriously. When she falls in love with Mr. Price, her social studies teacher (and volunteers to work with senior citizens to prove how socially conscious she is), Brogan begins to take on the larger questions of relationships between men and women, and she becomes a more palatable character. From her parents' ruined marriage to Mr. Price's platonic concern for a beautiful classmate, Brogan relates her discoveries to readers in a snappy first-person narration thatif laden with teenage angstis irresistible. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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